Tropical Moonlight
by Colleen
Summary: Josef goes to Honolulu to attend a meeting.


Disclaimer: As usual, I do not own the characters or places used in this fan fiction. Moonlight and Hawaii Five-0 are owned by a variety of people and other businesses, none of which (sadly) are me. This is for entertainment purposes only and no money will be made from it.

Author's note: This is what happens when you watch old episodes of Moonlight shortly before watching the latest episode of Hawaii Five-0. I'm sure by next week these events will no longer have a hope of matching up with what will happen in the show, but I had to write something or go mad.

Warning: Mild torture. If you've seen either show then this shouldn't be much of a surprise, but I thought I'd mention it.

This is a one shot.

Tropical Moonlight

By Colleen

The first time that he saw him Josef was at the Honolulu airport, just collecting the keys for his rental car. The man was escorting a rather banged up young woman to her plane. Frowning, Josef followed them, using the crowds to cover his interest in the couple. Once they'd arrived at her departure gate and were sharing a heartfelt goodbye Josef pulled out his cell phone and hit the number of the man he considered to be his best friend.

"Hey, Mick, glad to catch you still up." He listened for a moment. "Sunny and windy, just like always. I don't know why I never get to catch this place during a nice tropical storm. Or an eclipse, an eclipse would be nice. Anyway, I didn't call to give you a weather report. I just wanted to make sure that you were still in LA and hadn't cut your hair and somehow beat me to Oahu."

Josef pulled away from the cell phone as the small tinny voice on the other side saying "What?" was rather loud. Carefully he placed the phone back against his ear.

"Remember when I said that everyone has a double? Well I've just seen yours." He listened again. "No, I'm not kidding. If it wasn't for the hair and the fact that I think he might be a few years older than you physically, he could be your twin."

The young lady went through the gate to her plane and the man walked off. Josef considered getting a picture of him to prove the phenomenon to Mick, but there was something alert and guarded about him. He suspected he'd been lucky to tail him as far as he had. Doing something as overt as taking his picture, even with the phone, would pretty much paint a giant neon arrow with the words 'possible threat here' over his head.

Josef let the man go, wanting him to be well away from the airport before following him out. Leaning up against a wall, he asked Mick if he'd managed to get into any trouble in the brief time he'd been gone, knowing that his friend was fully capable of stepping in something during the few hours he'd been away. He didn't disappoint, explaining that he'd taken a case to track down a missing guitar and had ended up stumbling across a murder.

It was a damn good thing that Mick was a vampire. He'd have gotten himself dead a number of times by now if he weren't.

* * *

The second time he saw the guy was when he sat down across from him at the restaurant where he was meeting with the group of investors. Wo Fat was just apologizing for Hiro Noshimuri absence, an unsurprising event as Josef's presence in Honolulu was a direct result of the fund's main investor's arrest for kidnapping. Further complicating matters, he learned through McGarrett's questions to Wo Fat that Hiro's brother had died in a car accident shortly before his arrival on the island.

"And who are you?"

Josef had to smile… well, okay, smirk. Not only did he sound just like his friend, whoever this Steve McGarrett was, he was just as painfully direct as Mick was. He would have to look at the St. John family tree sometime and see if the two families didn't overlap somewhere.

"Josef Kostan, Kostan Industries. I manage a hedge fund for the investors here."

"Does that include Hiro Noshimuri?"

Josef's smirk grew larger. "I believe a piece of knowledge like that would require a warrant, at the very least." He didn't know what McGarrett was originally going to say to that, as the man suddenly paused and looked at him, closely.

"Have I seen you, before?"

Oops, not good. Not that Josef let that emotion show on his face. "I wouldn't have thought so. I don't get to the islands very often."

"You should, you could use the tan."

"What and get skin cancer and wrinkles? No thank you."

The short blond male detective standing behind McGarrett gave a snort of agreement. Josef didn't think he'd seen anyone less likely to be somewhere tropical, and that included him and most of the other vampires that he knew.

* * *

The third time he saw him left Josef vowing to not come anywhere near the Hawaiian Islands for at least the next few decades.

The evening seemed promising. The investors had hashed out a few of their problems and in the end had decided to take a wait and see attitude to Noshimuri's problems. It didn't surprise Josef. It might be called 'Hedge' trading, but the fact was you didn't go into it if you weren't up to taking a risk.

Josef had just bid goodnight to the freshie he'd ordered. Honolulu had enough vampires living in it that he could get take out. He sent down to room service for a hell of a lot of ice and was hoping to get a few hours sleep before a second business meeting during breakfast.

He tossed his suit jacket on the bed and wandered into the suite's living room, holding his cell phone to his ear with his shoulder as he started to undo the first two buttons on his shirt. His personal assistant was on the phone from LA, explaining a few of the minor problems that had cropped up while he was gone. A knock on the door and a voice announcing room service had him opening it without his usual checking, so he really had no excuse to be surprised to find a gun in his face.

"I'll have to call you back Loraine, something's come up." Josef closed his cell phone. "Mr. McGarrett, I didn't expect to see you again."

"That wouldn't be because you thought you had just put a bullet into my head, would it?"

Josef blinked at him, momentarily at a loss for words.

McGarrett frowned at him and the muzzle of his gun dropped about half an inch. "Mind if we come in?"

Josef realized that McGarrett's partner was standing behind him, his gun drawn as well. Both of them were also wearing bulletproof vests.

He gestured for the two men to enter. "Of course. Would you care for drinks?" He glanced towards the hallway. "I should have some ice arriving shortly."

"No thanks."

The blond, Detective Williams, closed the door behind him. Josef sat down on the suite's couch and the other two men sat down in the chairs opposite, their guns still out and pointing at him.

"The airport."

"Excuse me?"

"That's where I've seen you before. You were following me while I was seeing my sister off at the airport."

Mentally Josef lamented the fact that he'd lost a bet with himself. Mick had his Beth; he'd thought that the girl at the airport had been McGarretts. He pulled himself out of his thoughts to realize that the man was really pissed off. He considered trying to explain the airport incident to him, but thought that showing him what had been going on would make for a more convincing argument.

"Mind if I get my laptop? It will clear things up better than I can."

The two detectives looked at each other for a moment, and then Williams stood up and holstered his gun. "I'll get it." He went over to the desk it was set up on, picked it up carefully, looked it over and then brought it to Josef, placing it on the coffee table in front of him.

With a few taps to the keys, Josef brought up Mick's face book page and turned the screen around for the two men to see it.

It took less than five seconds for Detective Williams to start laughing.

"That isn't me. I haven't worn my hair that long since I was a teenager." McGarrett looked a little closer at the screen. "In fact, I don't think it was that long even then."

The blonde swallowed his laughter, although it still seemed to leak out of his eyes. "So, who is Mick St. John?"

"A friend. My best friend in fact." Josef gave his full attention to McGarrett. "When I saw you at the airport I thought… Well, it doesn't matter what I thought. I followed you for a bit and then called Mick, just to make sure you weren't him."

McGarrett pulled the laptop closer to him and started to work through the information using the hand that wasn't holding a gun. "He's a private investigator?"

A nod.

A knock at the door stopped any further questions.

"Room service."

Josef winced slightly. This was going to be a lot of ice to explain.

"Come back later." McGarrett called out. Josef felt a moment's relief.

Then the door crashed inward.

McGarrett and Williams hit the floor at the same time that Josef threw himself over the back of the couch. Sadly, it proved to be of little protection and the vampire felt the sting of a lead bullet as it passed through his shoulder.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why didn't he pay attention when McGarrett said someone had tried to off him earlier today?

The two detectives quickly returned fire and Josef heard a body hit the floor while a set of feet took off down the hall.

"Kostan, are you alright?"

"Peachy." Josef called from behind the couch. "Just peachy." He added in under his breath as he looked at the holes in his shirt.

"Stay there."

Josef peered over the sofa as the two detectives took off out of the door after the other gunman. He stood. Ignoring the body on the floor, he quickly walked into the bedroom and picked his suit coat up off the bed. He slid it on, wincing as the movement pulled at the still healing entry and exit wounds. At least the damn thing had gone all the way through. Digging the bullet out later so that he wouldn't set off the airport metal detectors would have been a pain.

He looked in a mirror, to make sure that everything was covered, and then went back into the living room. He arrived just moments before McGarrett and Williams returned, dragging the injured, but still alive second gunman along with them.

McGarrett tossed the man down on the couch. Detective Williams was looking very annoyed and started pacing behind his partner.

"No serious tattoos. He's not yakuza. So, what do you want to do? Because at this point I'm all for you using the shark cage again."

Despite the situation, the images that generated brought a smile to Josef's lips.

McGarrett shook his head. "It would take too long."

"Downtown traffic on the hood of a car?"

Another headshake. "Same problem."

Josef walked around behind the couch. "I have a balcony, and it's a long way down."

"Hmm."

"Room service."

Steve and Danny pulled their weapons and whirled around, making the hotel staff member pushing a cart of ice fold in on himself and huddle on the ground. Unnoticed by either man, their suspect tried to make a break for it, but Josef grabbed him by his hair and slammed him back into his seat.

"How about," Josef suggested, "Lots and lots of ice."

* * *

Once they had gotten rid of the room service guy Steve pulled the shooter's socks and shoes off while he was still sitting on the couch. He dragged him into the bathroom and forcibly removed the guy's shirt before pushing him into the soaker tub. Danny shoved the cart of ice into the room and Josef tore open one of the bags and handed it over to the ex-navy seal who poured the ice out on top of their suspect.

"Ah, what the hell are you doing?"

Danny stood off to the side, shaking his head. "You've never seen anyone freeze to death, have you?"

The guy thrashed slightly, trying to get out of the tub. McGarrett shoved him back down and poured the next offered bag of ice over him.

"People who live in warm places, like here and LA, they don't know what it's like to be so cold that their body starts sacrificing its parts just to stay alive. You see, it worries more about keeping your heart and lungs going. It gets cold enough and it figures it can do without toes, a hand… a leg."

Steve poured in two more bags while Danny was speaking.

"That's utter crap." The guy said, shivering.

Josef handed Steve another bag and then opened one of his own, pouring it into the tub around the guy's bare feet. "Just so you know. The shivering means that hypothermia is already setting in. Don't worry, it'll stop as soon your body is so cold that it can no longer produce the energy it needs to move. Of course, you'll be pretty close to unconsciousness and death, by then."

Danny looked at his watch. "About half an hour?"

Steve frowned at them. "I would have thought that it would take at least an hour."

Danny shook his head. "Only if you're use to the cold. Living here…" He shook his head. "I'd say forty minutes, tops."

Josef nodded in agreement and then tilted his head, looking down at the gunman. "Less, his lips are already turning blue."

The guy attempted to get out of the tub again and this time Josef was the one that shoved him back down. His eyes shifted to white and back again. The guy shrank away from him.

"Now," Steve said, holding another open bag of ice in his hands. "Who hired you?"

* * *

Josef prepared to change rooms while the Medical Examiner's office collected the body and the HPD dragged the still living shooter off to be treated for mild hypothermia before continuing on to jail. All that torture and no small amount of bluffing had netted them little by way of information. The man who had hired him was mearly the next cog on the wheel. McGarrett and Williams had headed off to collect it as soon as the police and the other two members of their task force had shown up.

A couple of the uniformed officers helped him pack. He was certain that his clothes would never recover from it.

* * *

The fourth time Josef saw McGarrett he and Detective Williams had come to see him off at the airport. Although Josef had the feeling they were making sure he really left. Either way, he did something incredibly stupid just about then.

He didn't know what possessed him, but he gave each of them one of his cards, and invited them to look him up if they were ever in LA.

As he sat in first class, watching the Islands disappear out the airplane's window, he had the horrible feeling that they'd take him up on that, eventually.


End file.
